One branch of the field of mariculture is the growing of cultured mussels for commercial use. In some commercial operations, mussels are grown on lines in the open waters where they can be easily harvested. A unique characteristic of line-grown cultured mussels is that their shells are fragile and tender as compared to cultured mussels grown with other methods. This is particularly true of mussels grown on lines in the waters of the northwestern United States.
In order to enhance the commercial value of cultured mussels, it is necessary for the grower to clean the mussels prior to shipping them to market. Machines have been developed to mechanically clean shellfish to remove barnacles and other waste material from the shells. One drawback to these shellfish cleaning machines is they are designed to clean shellfish having very hard shells. As a result shelled mussels passing through these machines will be damaged and/or destroyed, rendering them commercially unfit. As a result, growers are left to hand clean the mussels by hand, which is labor-intensive and not commercially viable. Hence, there is a need for a machine that can clean large amounts of fragile-shelled mussels in a relatively short period of time without damaging the mussel shells.